news & views on the Alberta Technology sector

Signing up Nike from the Kitchen Table (in Cochrane, Alberta)

Kip Fyfe captivated a full house (standing room only) at Calgary Technologies recently with the terrific story of Dynastream Innovations. How a small group of family members including Kip’s brother, wife and a neighbor, collaborated, innovated and persevered to create the global leader in inertial and wireless technologies – here’s what those look like:

and executed a hugely successful exit with a $46 million sale to Garmin. All from the thriving metropolis of Cochrane, Alberta.

I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Kip tell the story a couple of times. It’s pretty entertaining to hear about hosting the Nike executives from Oregon at the kitchen table in Cochrane, and trenching their own LAN cable over to the neighbour’s garage, but the real heart of the story is about bigger things like vision, courage, commitment to ideals, doing things right, and doing the right thing.

From creating, and working effectively with, a capable, independent, talented Board, to reinvesting all the earnings back into R&D, to keeping the company itself in the tiny town of Cochrane with a strong commitment to quality of life for the founders, their families and employees, Kip and the founding team provide an outstanding example of how getting the foundational, fundamental things right can lead to exceptional success.

Dynastream is a tremendous example of the benefits of innovation and diversification for the Alberta economy. Kip is now making his time, expertise and experience generously available to the local emerging technology community. Contributions like his make a profound contribution to the Alberta technology community and economic diversification in this province, thanks Kip!